David Cameron urged the world to remember ‘all of Col Gaddafi’s victims’ as he welcomed the death of the Libyan dictator.
The prime minister was ‘proud’ of the role Britain played in Nato air strikes in the uprising against the 69-year-old.
‘We have been waiting for this moment for a long time – Muammar Gaddafi has been killed,’ he said.
Warning against excess jubilation, he added: ‘I think today is a day to remember all of Col Gaddafi’s victims, from those who died in connection with the Pan-Am flight over Lockerbie to Yvonne Fletcher in a London street and obviously all the victims of IRA terrorism who died through their use of Libyan Semtex.
‘We should also remember the many, many Libyans who died at the hands of this brutal dictator and his regime.’
Labour leader Ed Miliband said Gaddafi’s death ‘marks the end of a tragic period in Libyan history marked by brutality and repression’.
He added: ‘We should all hope this day also marks the end of the armed conflict and the start of a period of stability where we see a transition to democratic government.’
Foreign secretary William Hague insisted Britain would ‘still be working hard in Libya’ but added it ‘brings much closer the end of the Nato mission’.
‘Libya now has the chance to be a free and democratic country,’ he said.
Shadow foreign secretary Douglas Alexander said the death ‘closes a dark, 42-year-long chapter in the country’s history’.
And caretaker Libyan ambassador to London, Mahmud Nacua, said: ‘It is a glorious victory against the tyranny of Muammar Gaddafi, his sons and cronies.’
PICTURES:See photos of graffiti depicting Col Gaddafi’s demise
